Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Review: Shadow of Mordor

So I have put some time into Shadow of Mordor..probably a good 25 hours and I have to say that I fell in love with the game! The game offers a unique take on the action/adventure genre made popular from such titles as Assassin's Creed and the Batman Arkham series. Shadow of Mordor was a very nice surprise in terms of depth and I truly do feel that this will be a sleeper hit for 2014.

As I stated in my previous post, Shadow of Mordor, or SOW for short, has made quite the positive impact on the gaming community. There have been a plethora of reviews and I do believe they have been hitting the mark with what the game has to offer. SOW is an action/adventure game that uses combat influenced from the Arkham series and has elements of movement and free-running from other series. Now the major thing that SOW brings to the table is the Nemesis system. The Nemesis system is something truly unique and game changing for the gaming industry. This new system is a simple premises, and if adopted in other games can truly be ground breaking.

The Nemesis system is basically a way to create unique and interesting characters and interactions throughout the players journey in Mordor. What I mean by this would really be best explained by one of my own personal examples. As an example of the system, I started the game and was working on the beginning missions. There wasn't really to much different from what I have seen in some videos but an orc captain, I forgot his name but he had the title of plague-bringer, basically decided to ambush me right in the middle of a fight. He went on saying something about how this is a bad time for me and begun to mock me and then charged. I eventually slew him, or so I thought, and continued along with the game. Three hours later I meet him again, but now he is covered in fresh scars and tells me that I have made him hideous and wants his revenge on me, not that he was attractive to begin with but I digress...so I eventually slew him again and again, you guessed it, another hour later in the game we meet again. He now has become quite powerful and even more grotesque. He screams at me at how I have ruined his life and now he wants to repay me in blood. His appreaice is trully disgusting now and both of his eyes have turned a milky white. After our battle I eventually cut off his head and I havn't seen or heard from him since.

Now that was a long-winded example to be sure but the new system has really created ways to have unique and personal touches to each and everyones game. The Nemesis system is a way for orcs to rise and fall in power, increase in rank and prestige and everything is remembered. If you shoot an orc in the eye and he gets away, he might come back with a metal plate over his eye and, what was previously a weakness to range weapons, has now become an invunerablitiy because he will be on guard for your arrows. This system is trully what has made this game from a good experience to something awe inspriiing and I truly belive other games can learn from the Nemsis system.

Now in terms of story I think it does add some interesting lore for those who are fans of the Lord of the Rings series and Tolken in general. The combat is fun and the use of the new Branding system of making orcs join your side is really interesting.

Overall I would highly recommend Shadows of Mordor and I stick by my judgment of how this will be the sleeper hit of 2014.



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